I’ve always enjoyed our alternative methods season here in Missouri. I killed my first deer with a 50 caliber hawken in alternative season when I was 8. The last few years I take a 50 caliber inline with me most of the time, but always have a handgun with me for any shot I feel like I can make. I have several handguns that I could use but until this year I pretty much always took my super Blackhawk 44 mag, I’ve taken several deer with it. I carried 2 different 10mm’s the last couple years but never had any opportunity’s on the days I carried a 10mm.
This year for alternative season I decided to leave the inline in the safe and only hunt with handguns and not the 44 mag. I have a couple Colt SAA’s in 45 colt and 44-40, I generally prefer 44-40 but I’ve killed deer with 44-40 lever guns so I decided to go with a 45 Colt 5.5 2018 production SAA which was the only one I have that I purchased new. I load target rounds in 45 Colt but didn’t have any hunting ammo or time to get bullets and make a hunting load so I picked up some hornaday leverevelution and Barnes vor-tx, decided to go with the Barnes.
I killed my personal record buck with my bow a couple weeks ago so I’ve really just had meat hunting on my mind but do still have a buck tag. Saturday evening I had 3 doe’s come in and stop at 38 yards, I lined up on the biggest and she initially dropped and then stumbled about 20ft. Shot was behind the shoulder but high, the bullet stopped just short of reaching the ribs on the opposite side. I was very happy with the outcome and was sure a fun experience. Now I’m planning to branch out to a 357 magnum and 41 magnum for the remainder of the season and next year. For some reason I’ve never thought of 45 colt as much of a hunting round in a revolver but it will sure work.
